Two senior Tencent executives step down from vice-president roles to focus on jobs at literature and banking units: report

Two senior executives at Tencent Holdings are stepping down from their vice-president roles at the internet giant to focus on jobs in affiliate companies, according to a report by Chinese financial media outlet Caixin.

The Caixin report said Cheng Wu, who was responsible for marketing, and Jim Lai Chi-ming, who was responsible for fintech development, will no longer hold the positions of vice-president at Tencent, citing an internal memo. A person familiar with the situation confirmed the contents of the memo to the Post. Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cheng will remain the chief executive of China Literature, China's largest web novel publisher and majority-owned by Tencent, and Lai will continue in his role as the chairman of Fusion Bank, a virtual bank in Hong Kong jointly established in 2020 by Tencent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) and other partners.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Cheng joined Tencent in 2009 and in 2013 helped found Tencent Literature, which later merged with rival Cloudary to become China Literature. Cheng was appointed as the chief executive of China Literature in 2020, when Tencent replaced the platform's founding team with veteran executives from the parent company.

Lai, who also joined Tencent in 2009 and who has been heading up its fintech unit, remains the chairman and non-executive director of Fusion Bank.

The Shenzhen-based company's latest management reshuffle comes amid its recent efforts to control costs and improve efficiency amid stagnating growth, including job cuts and the implementation of a new promotion and assessment system.

Tencent has cut jobs across multiple business units, including cloud computing and video content. Tencent has also laid off about 100 people from its sports channels.

In March, Tencent president Martin Lau Chi-ping said the company would exit or streamline some noncore businesses to control headcount, a point founder and chief executive Pony Ma Huateng reiterated in an earnings call last month.

Last month, the company also adjusted its performance review system for employees with a simpler assessment system, a week after the company slowed the pace of pay rises following promotion.

Promoted personnel are no longer entitled to an "immediate" salary increase, Tencent told workers in an internal memo sent out on June 2. The salary review process was also pushed back a month, from June to July, so that it can be combined with employees' performance assessments.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.